##VIDEO ID:eJ924pwYR3A## e everyone welcome to the December 12th meeting of the hon Board of Education I'll meet the I'll read the open public meeting statement the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend any meetings of public bodies in which their interests may be discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Hampton board of education has caused the notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time purpose and place thereof published in The hamton Gazette and City and posted on authorized premises welome Mr berado Burns ex excused Mr COA hereon here Mrs Fallon here Mr fala is absent Mrs Hunter here Mr here Mr Shion here Mr Thomas here Mr Li here refle flag of the United States of America stands andice for all okay do not have any scheduled presentations this evening so we'll go to the superintendent thank you Mr Lions I'd just like to take a moment to wish our students their families and our faculty and staff a joyous holiday season and a very happy new year as your new superintendent of schools I am extremely proud of the first four months of the school year of the hard work of our students and our teachers and I look forward to continuing that hard work into the new year and Beyond so happy holidays to everybody thank you Mr LS thank you our we've given our principles the evening off and light of their hard work through the first half of the school year so we'll go to board member comment and committee reports I'll start to my left with Mr Thomas no report merry Christmas happy New Year happy holidays to everyone thank you I have um first of all um we are adding and voting on tonight a new supervisor of English and social studies very glad to have Behavior Analysis call D Maria is going to be on do I say it um uh will be approved tonight and we welcome them and uh we look forward to working with you and we en you all of your good work we held the um Choice Lottery on Wednesday and um I'm sure that was good and um i' like to congratulate the music program at the middle school it was so well received it was great performance so congratulations to the staff there uh we have some retirees on uh our agenda tonight that have been with us for a while and I'm sure Mr Ramsey is going to be visting that is going to be retire and Joanne massarelli who has been a a with us for a very long time also on page seven of your agenda you will find the new hires some are um clerk typist part-time personal AIDS and um District bus drivers and all of their names are located there so we wish them and um a good welcome and look forward to them um working with us also i' like to extend to everyone that um this is the holiday season and you can tell by just visiting so many stores and so many even the schools are doing Toys for Tots and anything we do to make this child smile on Christmas morning is all that we can do to make them happy and joyous and I wish all of you a very healthy New Year and a very Merry Christmas and I do have um I don't want to bring um step on raised toes but I don't know um Sean isn't here tonight but I wanted to uh congratulate him because he was the U Blue Devils player of the year for uh cross country he uh was a top runner in 2024 and he earned several mils I don't want to exclude anybody but camon Rivera was player of the year for uh volleyball Emma Longo for field hockey Deandre for football Manny CLA had a great year this year in cross country and ryy Clark had a great year in socer so I hope I didn't leave anybody out if I did you you can get in touch with me and I will give you praise next week I would love to I hate to you know leave anybody out but uh we're looking forward to our uh new sports season and uh Great accomplishments there also thank you thank you well I think m tonado covered pretty much everything we need to talk about this month I'll just uh let everybody know that the buildings and grounds committee is uh we're we're you'll see on the agenda number 49 we're awarding a contract to our engineer to be working on um the new addition to the ecec uh so we'll be working hard on that and I'd also like to just wish everybody a happy safe and healthy New Year and a Merry Christmas that's all I have thank you all right over to Mr C no no board report tonight backo everybody else is uh Merry Christmas happy holidays enjoy the new year that's it for me Sunday I have a short 17 Page report order for tonight hope you're all ready for uh just wanted to wish everybody a happy happy holiday and a very happy and safe new year thank you Mr sh yes quick report is the holidays resist yes as the holidays rapidly approach each school either had or will be having their winter concerts in the coming days last night the middle school students held their holiday concert did an amazing job on Tuesday December 17th the high school will be having their holiday concert at 700 p.m on Wednesday December 18th uh the Warren E soy Jr Elementary School we'll be having their annual concert at 9:15 a.m. and last but not least the Warren E Warren E soy elementary school will be having their strings concert on Thursday December 19th at 9:15 a.m. and the middle school will be having their strings concert uh on the same day at 700 p.m. pardon me December 19th winner athletic season officially uh kicks off for our middle and high school athletes on December 17th uh best of luck to our athletes and teams and I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas happy holidays and a great New Year that's my report thank you Mr good evening I would like to thank uh Mr Russ dustman and Mr Brandon Watson from the hamon Little League who reached out about the possibility of our high school industrial arts class helping to refurbish an old scoreboard at the hamton Lake Park I would also like to thank Mr Arena Mr Cody Mr lasasso and Mr Ramsay for jumping on the opportunity and for making it happen the scoreboard is actually already in the high school and the shop students are work it's in the shop and the students are working on cleaning it up doing um um some mild repair work and a Fresh coat of paint and I think it's a wonderful example of how our students our how our school is giving back to the community while giving our students a really unique Hands-On opportunity that the community will use so thank you for those of you who are involved in that project um I would also like to highlight uh number 16 on the agenda I of course am very excited um there is a fee for the New Jersey school boards Association to begin the strategic planning process uh this is something that I've been very passionate about since I got elected to the board and I look forward to starting that process next year and hearing uh valuable feedback from community members parents teachers and staff about the future of our district so I'm very excited about that and I'm sure you all are as excited about strategic planning and so Mary Christmas and happy New Year to all of you all right thank you Mrs donio I have a short report this evening as well um first uh last week we had our second of our three annual Bilal parent nights uh it was a really great event had about 300 uh parents attend visit my Santa Claus it was a really great night for families uh had about 250 students there uh that event is put on by staff who volunteer their time and administrator as well who supported and the hamon Education Association who generously provides a grant to the Bal bicultural Department to cover the cost of a full sit down dinner for parents to be there and for the activities for kids is a really wonderful and unique event uh I saw some video this year sorry at this most recent event they had a a young boy of age five who sang uh for the entire crowd uh something to behold I'll just say that it's pretty impressive um building all what Mrs donio had talked about we're really excited to enter into an agreement with New Jersey School wordss Association to take a fresh look at strategic planning coming out of the superintendent search and selection last year uh re-engaging with New Jersey school boards to give uh that to give the board an extra set of resources to work with Mr Ramsey and his team as well as the community at large to really take a look at the good work we've done and where we're going in the next three to five years and set some goals for ourselves and really identify uh what we need to be doing more of in the district and where we want to go in terms of not only our curriculum and our offerings but perhaps our facilities and some of the things that we really want to get behind doing uh one of the best things about this board is we're Board of action right this board does we spend time talking about things and then they start to happen very quickly so what I would say to you is follow your strategic plan you can expect action which would be really exciting for the community and exciting for our students last thing I'll touch on certainly is the holiday season as everybody's everybody's talked about I'm I talk a lot about the less fortunate folks in the community and you know the need asan said to try to find a way to smile on the kids face and to you know donate and do the things you can to help help our kids I'm always touched by the generosity of the teachers that work here the staff the AIDS the support staff the administrators bus drivers the the facilities folks just the people here who buy presents for kids that they don't really know the high school students that adopt us adopt a younger kid and go to the store and buy them gifts and are thoughtful about buying gifts that are relevant that a kid would really like and enjoy uh I had occasion to be in company of some seniors and juniors and they were buying gifts there were female students that were buying gifts for fale students in the elementary school and just to see the amount of time and thought that they put into buying these gifts and making sure that it was something really nice that these kids can appreciate so not only were they volunteering their own money and their own time but they were being really thoughtful about it and I think that speaks to the level of character education that goes on in our schools and the character of the community like I said holidays are a great time to be around our buildings uh this the spirit is well alive around here but it's just really nice to see the kids do good things um um that concludes my report I'll just say again Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone and we'll look forward to be back here with you after the New Year next we'll go to the first of our two opportunities for public comment uh anybody in the audience can come up to the podium you'll give your name and address and you can address the board so come on up and you can be heard by all means good evening president Lions Board of Education and superintendent Ramsey I would like to introduce myself my name is Diana De Fury I live at 47 Lakeshore Drive in Hamilton I would like to express how humbled and honored I am to be appointed as an instructional supervisor within our district I've lived in hamton my whole life and I cannot describe how fortunate and blessed I feel to be able to come home and serve this community and District uh in this capacity I look forward to working together with the outstanding Educators in our district and with the community to promote the success growth and well-being of our students I really can't wait to get started I look forward to being able to serve our district with respect diligence and commitment thank you again very much for this opportunity and I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season thank [Applause] you hold on up whoever's next good evening my name is Matthew donio and I'm the junior class vice president here at Hamilton High School and tonight on behalf of the students I represent at HHS I would like to address the board and administration on the topic of the schedule change that is being proposed for next year rumors have been going around the school for weeks and me and many of my fellow students have concerns about the new rotating schedule idea I'm aware that things are in the very early stages but I believe that right now is when student opinions should be valued the most I've been doing my own research into other schools that use a schedule and quite honestly I don't think it could work here and many others tend to agree the biggest question I have is why are we even considering a scheduled change in the first place what are the benefits to it and are they good enough to outweigh the negative aspects like taking away senior privilege I would never be able to get all of my questions and concerns into my limited time on the mic here but there's a lot of confusion around the school and transparency needs to be the number one priority most importantly I want to make it clear that I'm not anti- change change is a good thing and if done for a reason and if done for a reason and Mr matina has done a great job so far as our principal and seems to be working on a lot of good ideas like adding more dual credit dual credit opportunities but I believe there are more meaningful changes that should be considered to improve our school without changing the schedule such as the introduction of a 10-point scale grading system I speak for all the students in asking the board and administration to Value student opinions in the early stages of these discussions and be very careful in making a huge change that has the potential to negatively impact next year and Beyond this change will affect every single student I represent as our at our school as a class officer and every student deserves to be informed and have their questions and concerns addressed that's thank you thank you okay thought we going a happy birthday anyone else public be heard there's a second opportunity if you want to come up at the end that's okay too it's really up to you all right let's uh we'll have a second opportunity at the end for anybody wants to come up okay moving to publish agenda we'll take a motion for finance items number 1 through 19 motion Mr Co first second Mr Berard second Mr berado yes Mr Co yes Mr donio yes Mrs Fallon yes abstain on number one Mrs Hunter yes for items 1 through 17 Mr yes Mr sh yes Mr Lions yes motion carried next I'll a motion on personel items number 20 through number 40 Mrs ber Mrs found second on this motion on item number 39 we're going to strike the name Wanda Gomez to the one question take a roll call Ver Mr K yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Fallon yes Mrs Hunter yes 24 through 40 Mr yes Mr sh yes Mr Lions yes motion carried next we'll take program students in miscellaneous items 41 through 48 I'll entertain a motion verado first second Mr Co second roll berado Mr Co yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Fallon yes obain on 44 Mrs Hunter yes for items 43 through 48 Mr yes Mr ship yes M yes motion carried now we'll move to the agenda I'll entertain a motion for finance items number 49 and through 50 before you take that can we just for the record 49 will be amended to include pending attorney review and there is an add-on at 49a which I'll read into the record resolved at the Hampton Board of Education approved capital reserve withdrawal in amount of $430,000 for the local share of Professional Services related to early childhood education center Second Story pre kindergarten classroom Edition state project number 19603 0-24 pk02 Mr C first second Mr sh on second roll Mrs berado yes Mr Co yes Mrs doio yes Mrs Fallon yes Hunter for item number 50 Mr yes Mr Shion yes Mr Li yes motion carries I'll entertain a motion on Personnel item number 51 motion second Hunter first Mr CH second Mr berado yes Mr yes m Mrs Fallon yes Mrs yes Mr yes Mr yes Mr yes motion carries that takes us to the end of the published agenda and this is the second opportunity for the public to be heard come on up to the microphone and address the board just give us your name and address think Frank lasso um want to thank the board uh Mr Ramsey coach Sako and Mr Mina um for placing your faith in me to uh be in charge of the baseball program um Hamilton High School has a long history of success in athletics and we have a vision we have a plan and we hope to continue on in that tradition um and we're just we're thrilled to get to work so getting ready to go now thank you thank you thank you good luck thank you okay uh two quick items before we entertain a motion to adjourn the board reorganization meeting will be on January 2nd at 6: PM right here in the high school library same Library uh if that date does not that date hasn't been published yet in the paper so if it doesn't work for any board member just reach out sooner than later that's the first Thursday in January January 2nd 6 PM so let us know if that doesn't work okay that's one thing and then no no Clos session just the reorganization and as a reminder it's required to be held that first week in January and then lastly uh I I did not I neglected to do so during my boorder rept but just wanted to wish our own Mrs donio happy birthday thank you for coming out on your birthday to award meeting it is I've done it before it's not great so thanks for being should we sing I think we should we sing [Music] do you really want this start I don't think she want this yes I think you should solo you're more AER and Matthew you didn't wish your mother happy birthday when you had the microphone I thought that I thought that Mr Don was here for to come up and wish his mother happy birth motion to motion Mr first Mr second thank you everybody oh